Scientist

The Scientist
Occupation	Scientist
Biographical information
Place of birth	Outside
Place of death	Walled City 99
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male (called "he" by B-12)
Appearances
Appears in	Stray

The Scientist is not encountered in person in Stray. He was the original owner of B-12.

B-12 has vague memories of assisting the Scientist while he was alive, of playing computer games together, and so forth. These memories become clearer as the game progresses.

The Scientist has a engineering degree diploma issued within the City in 2198. However, he was in the Outside with B-12, as B-12 recalls in his first memory. Perhaps the Scientist was involved in the building of the Sewers of City Technical Network ("The Scientist showed me the blueprint of the water tanks." - B-12).

Plot and/or Ending Details Follow

Eventually, on seeing a sarcophagus in Antvillage, B-12 realizes that he himself is the Scientist, scanned into the network using a sarcophagus, but failing to be moved into his intended destination due to an error. It seems likely that the intended destination of his "soul" was the broken companion attached to his sarcophagus. Theory: This in turn gives a hint at what the event was that gave the Companions "souls", and all the strange inconsistencies that B-12 calls out throughout the game; why they remember the smell of fresh paint, and light incense, without having the ability to smell; why they play-act at eating when they have no mouths, and hairdressing when they have no hair; why they suffered the same illogical class distinctions as humans; why they make art; why they have children, and old folk; why they have regional names, and hobbies, occupations, etc. from the beforetimes. B-12 remembers that as the scientist he enjoyed a burger bar where the proprietor and the store name both began with M, and in Midtown we find that Mattbee runs MattBurger (which is what the asset is called internally: there's no meaningful sign on the store)... and it's likely because that's who got scanned into that Companion. The Scientists family has perished to the pandemic within the city, as noted by him in the Control Room.